As regular readers know, each Tuesday morning at 7:20 am Alaska, I join KBYR AM700‘s The Michael Dukes Show to discuss the latest in Alaska oil and fiscal issues. This week I also sat in for a day as guest host of Friday’s show while Michael took a well deserved break.
We turned part of the show into “Fiscal Friday,” using it as an opportunity to take a deeper dive into some of the important issues surrounding Alaska’s budget situation. We broke the discussion into two parts.
Part 1 includes:
- An overview of the three critical steps involved in setting a budget (determining the approach, projecting revenues and setting spending)(from 1:55 to 13:40 of the podcast),
- A discussion with Rep. Lynn Gattis on what lies ahead in the coming legislative session on fiscal issues (from 14:25 to 29:25), and
- A discussion with former Senate President and Walker Transition Team Co-Head Rick Halford on the Permanent Fund, the Permanent Fund Dividend and the “other 50” of the Permanent Fund earnings stream (from 30:25 to the end).
Part 2 includes a discussion during the first part of the third hour about budgeting decisions being made at the University of Alaska, and how those relate to the state’s fiscal situation (from 04:55 to 12:45).
Links to background articles and some of the materials referenced during the discussion are available here.
Listen here or at the widget below. For past episodes of our ongoing discussion with Michael Dukes on these issues, go here.
Thoughts on Alaska Oil & Gas 